It’s quite the trick to tell a story that is both anti-gun and supportive of stand-your-ground doctrine. I’m almost positive director Brad Bird was going for only one half of that equation in “The Iron Giant” (1999), but I’m going to stand my ground, too. Aside from the deep-thinky pacifist stuff, this stylish piece of children’s animation is the classic story of the (mostly) gentle giant who is (mostly) misunderstood by the townsfolk, government, etc. Except for the kid who befriends him, of course. It all gets magnified through a Cold War paranoia lens and leads to a dramatic climax.
Archives for posts with tag: animated films
The soundtrack and animation in “The Bad Guys” (2022) are top notch. That’s a good thing, because the plot is warmed-over sitcom material, hidden behind an “Ocean’s Eleven” mask (with the “Star Trek” episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” thrown in). There’s a group of celebrity criminals. One tries to go clean and finds out it’s actually more rewarding than being bad (hijinks ensue). In the sitcom, the spell is eventually broken. I won’t spoil the film for you. There’s really not much more to say. It’s slickly done, but that’s easy when you’re just heisting other movies and TV shows.
A giant, who is terrorized by larger giants, kidnaps a little girl and takes her to his lair. He gives her something to drink from his in-home still and then does a big song-and-dance number about farting. I’ve never read “The BFG” but if the 1996 U.S. video release is true to the book, Roald Dahl has some explaining to do. This is ostensibly a horror movie for children, involving dream implantation, kid-eating giants and a counteroffensive launched by British commandos. If you’re nostalgic, it features the bad 1980s-style animation and worse 1980s-style synthesizer soundtrack Gen Xers grew up with.
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